Presidency of Ernesto Geisel

Ernesto Geisel began his career in 1921 as a student at the Military College in Porto Alegre and reached his most important political positions during the 1964 military regime as head of the Military Cabinet in the Castelo Branco government and minister of the Superior Military Court in the Costa e Silva administration. He was president of Petrobrás when he was nominated by President Médici as a candidate to succeed him on 18 June 1973.^[3]

A month later, he resigned from Petrobrás and was endorsed as a presidential candidate at ARENA's national convention on 14 September; his vice-presidential partner was General Adalberto Pereira dos Santos. On 15 January 1974, they beat the MDB team formed by Ulysses Guimarães and Barbosa Lima Sobrinho by a score of 400 votes to 76 in the first election held by an Electoral College. Geisel was sworn in at a solemn session of the National Congress chaired by Senator Paulo Torres (ARENA-RJ). He followed the moderate line of the armed forces, as he saw the military regime as a transitional measure to ensure liberalism in the country.^{[note 1][note 2][3][4][5]}

Geisel assumed office after promising a "slow, gradual and secure" political opening in order to meet the demands of organized civil society without interrupting the regime. During his administration, there were fewer complaints about the death, torture and disappearance of political prisoners and confrontation with the hardline, a group opposed to the government's directives. Institutional Act Number Five was used to decree federal intervention in Rio Branco in 1975 after the MDB councillors refused to ratify the mayoral nominee and to remove some parliamentarians from office. AI-5 was progressively replaced by "constitutional safeguards".^[5][1][6]

In the campaign for the 1974 elections, MDB candidates won sixteen of the twenty-two seats in the Federal Senate and increased their representation in the Chamber of Deputies and the Legislative Assemblies. Fearing that this would happen again, in 1978 the government sanctioned the Falcão Law, which only allowed candidates' CVs to be read out during election time on radio and television.^{[note 4][7][8]}

On 8 April 1977, the Pacote de Abril (English: April Package) was approved and included an increase in the presidential term from five to six years, the creation of the two-year senator, the maintenance of indirect elections for governor and an increase in the number of federal deputies in the states where the government had a majority. The measures prompted criticism from the opposition, but ensured the election of General João Figueiredo as Geisel's successor on 15 October 1978. The Institutional Act Number 5 was revoked on 31 December that year.^[9][10]

After the deaths of journalist Vladmir Herzog and worker Manuel Fiel Filho in the DOI-CODI, also known as DOPS, between October 1975 and January 1976, the government was forced to curb the actions of the hardliners. This culminated in the replacement of General Sylvio Frota by General Fernando Belfort Bethlem in the Ministry of the Army, as a result of criticism of the High Command of the Armed Forces and the General Command of the National Information System (SNI) for allowing infiltrators to destroy important files on the premises of regional organizations. The measure represented a victory against the "radical" sectors of the Armed Forces. The Geisel government also experienced bomb attacks on the Brazilian Press Association, the Order of Attorneys of Brazil, the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning and the residence of journalist Roberto Marinho.^[11][12]

During the Geisel government, the states of Rio de Janeiro and Guanabara merged, the state of Mato Grosso do Sul was created and former presidents Eurico Gaspar Dutra, Ranieri Mazzilli, Juscelino Kubitschek and João Goulart died.^[1][13]

The Divorce Law was sanctioned on 26 December 1977, following the adoption of a simple majority quorum for the approval of constitutional amendments. The inclusion of divorce had been a cause defended by Nelson Carneiro for years.^{[note 5][14]}

The Geisel government was marked by the end of the Brazilian Miracle, the 1973 Oil Crisis and an increase in both inflation and external debt. To overcome the obstacles, the government decided to draw up the Second National Development Plan and instituted the National Alcohol Programme in order to diversify the energy matrix. Construction began on the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant in partnership with Paraguay and a contract with Bolivia to supply gas to Brazil was signed in 1974. The following year, a nuclear agreement was signed with the then West Germany.^{[1][15][16][17][18]}

Due to the rise in the cost of living and inflation, workers began to organize and protest more emphatically. As a result, the trade union movement in the Greater ABC region gained prominence and the figure of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was projected nationally. The repercussions of the movement led the government to ban strikes in essential sectors.^[1][19][20]

Brazil established diplomatic relations with China and with Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, and was the first nation to recognize Angola's independence. Relations with the United States were cut during the presidency of Jimmy Carter after accusations of human rights violations. Geisel strengthened diplomatic ties with China and reached a nuclear agreement with Germany.^[1][21]

• Military dictatorship in Brazil